


Dream of a funeral, and you hear of a wedding.

by ACatWhoWrites



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Forced Marriage, Hoodoo, M/M, Marriage, Microfic, Supernatural Elements, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-23
Updated: 2014-04-23
Packaged: 2018-01-20 13:34:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1512425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ACatWhoWrites/pseuds/ACatWhoWrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Baekhyun imagined his wedding would be happy...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dream of a funeral, and you hear of a wedding.

He remembers how much he loved Do Kyungsoo. Nothing could erase the memories of afternoon dates slinking into evenings and late nights. There always seemed to be a light emanating from Kyungsoo—his smile, his careful words, his spontaneous energy—that attracted people like a bear to honey. Even Baekhyun fell to the sweet temptation, taking all he could and never noticing the buzzing until it was too late.

The sting doesn't burn anymore.

He stands at the back of an old church. It's lit by candles that don't flicker in the breeze from the drafty walls. Even with all of the flames, Baekhyun is cold. Numb. Like coming in from a winter day after not wearing gloves. Burning inside, but freezing outside; cancelling into tingling nothingness. He can barely feel the hands dusting off his coat, ruffling the bustle and bows that trail to the floor behind him.

Lu Han dips into view, smiling with teeth that Baekhyun now knows are much too sharp. He flips Baekhyun's bangs, presses his thumbs along the bottom of his eyes, and adjusts the veiled headpiece to obscure his face.

Baekhyun waits with sloped shoulders and hands over his lap. A bouquet of drying sunflowers and black roses rest loosely in his hands, tied with a white satin ribbon. The roses still had thorns, tipped with red, as if Baekhyun had already pricked his hands, when they were presented to Baekhyun. Kyungsoo had picked each thorn from their stems and pressed the bouquet into his bride's hands with a smile. Baekhyun stared into his eyes and couldn't recognise his own reflection.

He never imagined Kyungsoo could be a Salomé in disguise.

The church slowly fills with guests Baekhyun vaguely recognises. It's as if the veil over his eyes removes the illusion of humanity and leaves everyone naked, stripped to their true, hidden selves.

A cheerful quintet of witches from all over the world—China, Korea, the United States—sit in a single pew. Across the aisle, another quintet, all males, sit still still as statues but the youngest, who keeps shifting to find a comfortable spot that doesn't constrict his translucent wings. Lu Han takes his seat nearer the front, flanked by a boy as pale as the moon and another boy with sun-kissed skin. At the back, a giant folds himself as small as he can but is still not small enough for the human-sized pews. He pushes one up against the wall and finally lets his legs stretch. Several nymphs giggle as they dance among the guests, dropping flower petals that immediately shrivel and turn black.

Baekhyun has no clue how many guests are invited, but he would panic if he had any feeling left. He idly wonders what his parents and brother would say if they knew.

Married at 22.

Dead at 21.

A black cat winds around Baekhyun's ankles.

Zhang Yixing, whom Baekhyun remembers playing guitar while Baekhyun and Kyungsoo sang, takes a seat at the piano. His playing is a bit stilted and just a beat off, but he plays the wedding march well for being undead.

Baekhyun doesn't want to walk. He doesn't want to get married. He doesn't want to be in this weird dead-but-not-gone limbo.

But he has to walk. He has to get married. He will remain in limbo until Death separates him and Kyungsoo. Conveniently, Death takes a seat at the very back of the church, settling his long staff on the floor at his feet and checking the watch on his wrist with bright eyes, as if considering how long he can spare not reaping for the unusual ceremony.

Kyungsoo is waiting for him at the altar, face painted white with an intricate skull. His hands hold a miniature doll dressed like Baekhyun's twin in a silk suit and ruffled train, smile drawn obscenely wide on a button-eyed face. He mimics movement in its legs, and Baekhyun walks.

The crowd is silent as they watch Baekhyun tread over dead flowers and dried weeds. The floorboards creak with every step, heeled shoes clicking like thunder on the hollow floor. Each step turns the key in the lock holding his soul, turning the mechanism tighter and tighter.

At the very front of the pews, Chanyeol is alone. He doesn't watch Baekhyun approach the altar but rather watches the altar itself. Even when Baekhyun first met him, he had a feeling something was off. He laughed a lot, played a lot, and was an overall very pleasant man, but his token interest in Kyungsoo was unsettling. When he stopped laughing and playing and seeing his friends, Baekhyun never knew what happened until he started really dipping into the honey-baited trap that was Do Kyungsoo.

Now, through his veil, Baekhyun sees the elf for what he is, just a living doll in a preserved corpse that smells sweet like the honey that fills its cavities. An ethereal beauty that wastes away on lost love and a broken heart that struggled to beat within the porcelain imitation settled demurely on his lap. Baekhyun wonders if he's aware of what happened to him. If he even cares anymore. Baekhyun thinks he must, since his face is still stained pink from his bloody tears.

Three more steps and Kyungsoo settles the doll beside him on the table bearing two rings. He holds out his hand and beckons Baekhyun up the short steps to stand beside him.

Baekhyun can't resist, but he can cry, and as tears of blood drip off his chin and stain the floor, he imagines his heart squeezing so tight in his doll that it implodes and soaks into the table. Maybe then he could be free with Death and find solace in a deep grave.

For now, he stares at Kyungsoo's eyes and repeats the vows, giving the rest of his unnatural life to the man who stole his mortal soul and destroyed it in his fist.

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd. Written for a [prompt](http://exopromptmeme.livejournal.com/11458.html?thread=5993410#t5993410) on the [exopromptmeme](http://exopromptmeme.livejournal.com/). The title comes from an idiom meaning the person who dream of dying will be married soon. No clue who thought that made sense, but okay.
> 
> Oscar Wilde wrote a play about the Biblical story of Princess Salomé, in which she falls in love with John the Baptist. He rejects her, she has him beheaded, and she kisses his severed head. Baekhyun's not been beheaded, but the feeling's still there. In case it's not obvious, Chanyeol and Baekhyun have been turned into zombies, basically, but they're controlled by their dolls. Voodoo and voudou influence with some creepy marionette business and witchcraft. It sounded better in my head.


End file.
